Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I wanted to make Smiley a festive little outfit for her birthday. Since she was having a Minnie Mouse b-day party, (you can see the celebration here and a cupcake tutorial here) I went with a Minnie Mouse skirt.

Nope, I didn't take any pictures of the process ~ oh well, it is super easy!

I wanted something Minnie Mouse~ish, with out being a Minnie Mouse costume.

So,
I purchased an inexpensive pink cotton skirt at Target for $4.00 (must have been on sale, because the website has it for $8.00)

and
Pulled an old t-shirt of mine, out of a box just waiting to be repurposed.

Ready?

I cut circles out of the white t-shirt.
Randomly placed them onto the skirt and.......
sewed them on!

For the shirt, I pulled out a long-sleeved t-shirt already in Smiley's closet. Purchased iron on letters from JoAnn's (with a 40% off coupon ~ of course) ~ and ironed them on (I couldn't find the exact ones online).

When I showed Smiley in the morning ~ the first thing she said was "MINNIE"

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Last Thursday was Smiley's 2nd birthday. You may have read there that she has a special place in her heart for all things Minnie Mouse (what, you missed that one? Click here to get caught up ☺)

Anyway, I made her some Minnie Mouse cupcakes ~ (I just checked out google images for inspiration)

Super easy!

Found some pink cupcake papers with white polka-dots at Michaels.
Made a boxed cake and dressed it up with 1 box of pudding and 1 cup of sour cream

And, made some yummy frosting.

The hardest part was making the ears (ok not really) and the bows (a little harder) out of fondant.

I purchased some white fondant and colored some of it black and some of it pink ~ it's a good idea to wear some sort of glove (or, coating your hands with a little vegetable shortening will help too) while coloring your fondant or your hands may look like this (for most of the next day):

Rolled the black out and cut circles for ears using a small round cookie cutter.

For the bows, I rolled out the pink fondant and cut it into strips, then cut the strips into 3 sections.

2 of the sections I formed around my pinkie finger to make the bow loops and smooshed the two together.

The 3rd piece was used to make the middle "knot". I just placed it over the middle and connected the two ends in the back.

I let these dry overnight so they would firm up.

The next day ~ right before the cupcakes were to be displayed, I placed all of the pieces on top of the frosted cupcake (which I frosted without a tip).

Sunday, October 24, 2010

When Sassy was a baby, I worked outside of the home with autistic kids.

One morning, she was sleeping, hubby was at work already and I was getting ready for work.

Here's a little house history ~
We were living in a little house in the big city. It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1400 sq. foot, "New England bungalow" (as described when we purchased it.). It was built in 1941 ~ not super old, but certainly not new.

Anyway, while I was getting ready for work all of a sudden I heard the washing machine start up. Yep, this certainly startled me as I was the only one home (and my husband wouldn't have turned it on because he didn't know it existed... Hee Hee Hee), besides Sassy and she was in her crib.

The washing machine was located in the basement which was 1/2 finished and 1/2 unfinished ~the part that housed the laundry room, furnace and water heater.

Well, I went down to the basement to check it out.

The washing machine was on the spin cycle.

I opened the lid and looked inside.

There were no clothes, towels or anything other washable garment in there.

Hardwood floors, cute little built ins ~ lots of character that I didn't appreciate while I lived there my junior year of college with 4 other lovely ladies!

Anyway, the main floor housed the kitchen, dining room, living room, sitting room, 1 bedroom, and the bathroom. Upstairs ~ the rest of the bedrooms.

It was a Sunday afternoon ~ a rare weekend actually, that I didn't drive "home" (an hour away) to work. I was sitting in the living room, all alone, in our big, old house. Probably watching some lifetime movie or something. :)

All of a sudden I heard creaking upstairs in one of the bedrooms. It was a rhythmic creaking, in one localized area. Not the sound of someone walking around. But a back and forth creaking sound. Like the sound of someone rocking in my roommates rocking chair...... upstairs. It continued for at least 3 minutes ~ continuously ~ creek..creek...creek...creek... ~ back and forth.

NO ONE WAS HOME BUT ME!!!!

After listening to it for awhile ~ I locked myself in my bedroom, with my headphones on and my head in a book!

I get goosebumps just thinking about it!

So do you believe? Do you have a story to tell?

I've got one more for you that I'll tell you on Sunday ~ and on Sunday I'll host a linky party ~ I want to hear your ghost stories! Come on, get ready to freak me out :)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I could hardly believe it last year when we were celebrating Smiley's 1st birthday!

I know I even shed a tear or two ~ maybe a few hundred more, but who's counting?

But 2 ~ Really?

How is this even possible, since I know I am not getting any older..............

OK, back to reality :) and a bit about Smiley:

~ She is talking up a storm and she likes to be heard ~ this might have something to do with trying to be heard over Sassy and Action.

~ She adores her big sister and brother and misses them while they are at school.

~ She loves to eat. Typically here first work in the morning when I get her out of her crib is "bekfast?" and 5 minutes after the breakfast dishes are cleaned up, she says "snack?" I think she would eat all day if I let her. And for as often as she likes to eat, she sure is picky!! She is more of a grazer than a meal eater ~ a few of her favorites are:

Anything sweet

avocado

grapes

bananas

lettuce ~ plain without salad dressing

celery

crackers ~ especially graham crackers

yogurt ~ although not the greek yogurt I prefer (yay, more for me ☺) but plain old Yoplait

Pepperoni sticks and salami ~ she is not much of a meat eater, but these are the two meats she does like ~ if you can call them that.

She loves music and the dancing that comes with it ~ it is very likely you will catch her jammin' out to a song on the radio while we are in the car or anywhere else. Her 2 favorite songs currently are, "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus and "California Gurls" by Katy Perry. And today I couldn't tell you how many times I heard her sing, "Hppy do day do yuuuuuu" (that's Happy birthday to you for those of you without 2 year olds around☺)

Books, She loves them all and even better, her attention span is getting longer!

Being outside, it doesn't matter if it is in the regular stroller, jogging stroller, bike, at the park or in the back yard, she LOVES it!

and Minnie Mouse. The girl loves her "minnie". This love affair began because of a family trip to Disney World when she was just 4 months old.

The kids picked out a stuffed Minnie Mouse for her. She found it one day and has loved her since.